Summary

To add whimsical winter spark to the Rose Kennedy Greenway's North End Parks, Lumenbeam Small fixtures were installed on a pergola and were aimed at disco balls, creating snowflake-like twinkles on the ground.

While there are many CMH fixtures that could have served, only Lumenpulse, to my knowledge, makes an LED fixture in so narrow and well-controlled a beam-spread.

Adam S. Kibbe Collaborative Lighting, LLC

Rose F. Kennedy Greenway

Inaugurated in 2008, the Rose F. Kennedy Greenway is a long stretch of pedestrian green spaces that connects residential neighborhoods with the financial district and the harbor. The Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Greenway Conservancy organized the Winter Lights program for each of the parks, and Collaborative Lighting, LLC, was hired to come up with lighting designs in the North End Parks for the 2013 season.

"They needed a simple, dismountable lighting concept they could install and remove seasonally, which would make a festive and notable difference to the ambience, something lively and joyous," says Adam S. Kibbe, Principal at Collaborative Lighting, LLC.

Lumenbeam Small fixtures were installed along the sides of the metal pergola with a narrow beam directed at mirror balls hanging from the top, which were customized for weather protection. The effect produces twinkles of light on the ground that evokes snowflakes, in keeping with the seasonal theme.

"Lumenbeam Small was chosen for its durability and narrow beam-spread—ideal for a mirror ball and for minimizing trespass—but also for their good glare control and attractive design, since they are placed where they are quite visible," Kibbe explains.

For this project, LED was the only lamp type ever considered. "There is little budget for maintenance, limited power, and the fixtures are where they could be touched, so heat of halogen would have been dangerous," Kibbe reports. "The impeccable design makes them a regular choice for specification, and while there are many CMH fixtures that could have served, only Lumenpulse, to my knowledge, makes an LED fixture in so narrow and well-controlled a beam-spread."

Boston residents who got to experience the installation this winter, have had nothing but praises for the disco route. "This adds whimsy and motion," says Kibbe. "It really does make the cold walk down these open areas much more delightful." And that's exactly what the Winter Lights program intended to do.